The present invention relates to an interior component in which a covering is applied to an outer surface of a base.
A vehicle includes interior components such as an instrument panel and a door trim (for example, refer to Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2009-101840).
The door trim of the vehicle described in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2009-101840 includes a trim body and a light emission unit, which is located between the trim body and a vehicle body panel and which emits light from the inner side of the trim body. The trim body includes a transparent core and a covering, which is applied to the outer surface of the core. The covering of the trim body is formed by layers having different patterns. When the light emitting unit is deactivated, only the pattern on the outer surface of the covering appears on the outer surface of the trim. When the light emitting unit is activated, the pattern on the outer surface of the covering and the pattern on the inner surface of the covering appear on the outer surface of the trim. That is, the pattern that appears on the outer surface of the trim is the combination of the patterns on the outer and inner surfaces of the covering.
In the interior component described in the publication, light is emitted from the light emission unit to the covering. This brightly illuminates the covering. However, if the light emission unit emits white light, the difference in the visible color of the covering is small between when the light emission unit is activated and when the light emission unit is deactivated. In this case, it is difficult to effectively produce a visual effect with the interior component.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an interior component that effectively produces a visual effect.
To achieve the above object, one aspect of the present invention provides an interior component including a transparent base, a covering, and a light emitting unit. The base includes an outer surface and an inner surface. The covering is applied to the outer surface of the base. The light emitting unit is located at an inner side of the base. The light emitting unit emits light to the inner surface of the base. The covering is a knitted fabric formed by knitting an outer yarn, which has a dark color, and an inner yarn, which has a brighter color than the outer yarn.
In the above structure, the dark color of the outer yarn is viewed as the color of the outer surface of the covering when the light emitting unit is deactivated. When the light emitting unit is activated during the nighttime or in a dark location, the light emitted from the light emitting unit brightly illuminates the covering. In this case, the light emitted from the light emitting unit is transmitted through the base. Further, the light is transmitted through gaps between the outer yarn and the inner yarn while being reflected by the inner yarn, which has a bright color, of the covering. The light transmitted through the covering is viewed as the color of the outer surface of the covering. Accordingly, even if the light emitting unit emits white light, the color of the light transmitted through the covering can be converted to another bright color that is difficult to expect from the color of the outer surface of the covering, that is, from the dark color of the outer yarn. Thus, a visual effect is effectively produced.